Preservation of food is accomplished by controlling and, where if possible, destroying the agents of food spoilage. Food spoilage may be considered to be any organoleptic change--that is, any tactile, visual, olfactory, or flavor, or change that the consumer considers to be an unacceptable departure from the normal state. The agents of food spoilage are present in abundance, not only within food, but in the environments where foods are grown, harvested, processed, and stored. They can include microorganisms such as bacteria and mold or a wide variety of chemical and physical factors. Of particular importance are oxygen and moisture, which can degrade some food products in a short period of time. A number of preservation techniques, including canning, dehydration, refrigeration, the addition of chemical additives, and irradiation have been devised to stop the various kinds of food spoilage.
Ground coffee is one food product, for example, that is vacuum packed in order to maintain freshness for delivery to the consumer. Obviously, however, the coffee begins to loose freshness the moment the container is opened and the vacuum lost to the surrounding atmosphere, which is normally humid to a substantial degree, especially relative to the coffee. Because of this, consumers are demanding whole-bean coffee that they can grind in small portions just prior to brewing. Nevertheless, the delivery of roasted whole-bean coffee to consumers in a retail setting is plagued with difficulties, for whole-bean coffee is susceptible to gradual, but continuous, permeation of oxygen and moisture leading to staleness of the product.
Roasted whole-bean coffee is now sold in what is commonly known in the industry as atmospheric storage bins. They can include storage bins from which a customer fills coffee beans with the aid of a scoop (which can present sanitation problems), storage bins that offer a free-flow spout mechanism in the bottom, operated by a lever, or storage bins with a portion control device designed to dispense a predetermined amount of coffee beans.
In general, these coffee storage bins are designed to accomplish one basic objective: to make it easy to dispense the product.
Typically, a grocery store customer selects the desired coffee bean from an atomospheric storage bin, dispenses the coffee beans into a coffee grinder, grinds the coffee, and then takes the ground coffee beans home for personal use. Unfortunately, these atmospheric storage bins allow the entry of air and moisture, and when exposed to these elements, the roasted coffee beans quickly begin the gradual surrender of their rich aroma, freshness, and distinctive taste. These containers can also be opened by the customer and foreign objects inserted to contaminate the product, such that the consuming public is not always presented with fresh, pure coffee beans.
Thus, there is a need in the prior art for a more tamper resistant container for dispensing coffee beans and other food products.
There is another need in the prior art to provide a dispensing system for coffee or other perishable foods, designed so that these items are stored therein, relatively free from interaction with air and humidity, to preserve their freshness.
These and other needs in the prior art will become more apparent to those of skill in the art, upon review of this specification, claims and its drawings.